"Baltimore’s public marketsare important to celebrating our past, and play a critical role in Baltimore’sfuture. The Baltimore Public Markets Corporation is reviewing its options andwill reengage the community to fulfill the vision for Cross Street Market.Public-private collaborations will be key, and I want to see Cross StreetMarket become what the community wants and certainly deserves."

I am very disappointed with the conclusion that Cross Street Market will not be revitalized. For a variety of reasons, Caves Valley Partners (CVP) has made the difficult decision to not move forward with the project. Dating back to my time as a community president, this was one of the top issues our neighborhood fought for. After being sworn in to office, it became a top priority of mine and I have worked tirelessly ever since to help get this project across the finish line.

Public-private partnerships on municipal markets are extremely complex and challenging. Funding must be cobbled together from multiple public and private sources and margins are extremely thin. The fact that CVP was the only team to respond to the RFP demonstrates truly how challenging this effort was.

I would like to thank the members of the Cross Street Market Advisory Committee for selflessly volunteering your time and effort along the way, all with the best interest of our collective neighborhoods at heart. The Baltimore Public Markets Corporation should be commended for shifting their paradigm and embracing the public-private partnership model. Lastly, thank you to CVP and Arsh Mirmiran for giving your best effort. Despite how risky and financially unattractive this deal was, your willingness to try this far exceeded what should have been expected.